|
An advocate
for equity
By George
Mauzy
Peggy Pruitt is always game for a challenge. Whether it’s speaking
up for women athletes or knocking a golf ball around the fairways
of her favorite course, she gives every situation her best shot.
 |
|
Rick
Fatica
|
| Peggy
Pruitt will retire in June. |
She’ll have more
time for the latter come June, when the senior associate athletics
director will retire after 26 years with Ohio University. A new
artificial turf field along South Shafer Street has been named Peggy
Pruitt Field in her honor.
Pruitt has served as the official voice for Ohio University women’s
athletics during what many would agree has been its most important
era. It’s been a time highlighted by huge gains for female
athletes, in large part because of the 1972 Title IX educational
amendment. In the past two and a half decades, she’s seen the
number of women’s sports jump from seven to 11 and new fields
and locker rooms installed for women’s lacrosse, soccer and
field hockey.
Described by colleagues as caring, fair and calm under pressure,
Pruitt is quick to note the contributions of the athletic directors
with whom she has worked: the late Bill Rohr, Harold McElhaney and
Thomas Boeh.
“Each of them significantly helped the progression of women’s
athletics,” Pruitt says. “Without their support and initiative,
much of the progress would not have happened.”
Pruitt describes her membership on the University’s 1978 Title
IX special committee as a career milestone. The group developed
a plan to distribute 66 athletic scholarships to women over a four-year
period. Today, 113 athletic scholarships go to women each year.
“Peggy definitely was one of the most powerful voices on the
committee,” says former Bobcat trainer Skip Vosler, who chaired
the panel. “She always has the best interest of Ohio University,
the Athletics Department and student-athletes in mind.”
A native of Louisville, Ky., Pruitt was a standout high school tennis
player who went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees
in physical education from the University of Kentucky. Her first
full-time collegiate coaching job came at Nazareth College in Bardstown,
Ky. In 1976, after a year as Ohio University’s coordinator
of women’s athletics and coach of the women’s tennis and
field hockey teams, she finished work on a doctorate in physical
education at the University of Illinois.
Pruitt values her coaching stint — which ended in the 1980s
as her administrative duties grew — because of the insider’s
perspective it gave her.
“Peggy has always gotten along great with the coaches,”
says Elmore Banton, who has coached men’s and women’s
track and field for 21 years. “As a former coach, she understands
our needs and problems.”
Adds field hockey coach Shelly Morris: “Peggy is a real advocate
for women’s athletics. She does all the little things that
matter and cares about the student-athletes and the teams.”
Pruitt’s expertise has extended beyond the Bobcats to numerous
conference and NCAA obligations.
“Peggy Pruitt has provided exceptional service to Ohio University
Athletics, the Mid-American Conference and the NCAA for 25 years,”
says Boeh, who has worked closely with Pruitt in his six years as
director of athletics. “Her extraordinary loyalty and commitment
to our department and the student-athlete experience have been nothing
short of remarkable.”
Modestly, Pruitt says the department will get along fine without
her.
“It doesn’t feel like I’ve been here that long because
I have really enjoyed my job and the people I’ve worked with,”
she says. “I’ll miss the daily contact with people, but
I will still enjoy coming to the sporting events.”
|
